Movable closure device



Filed Dec. 18, 1939 Z 1 5 5 9 12 {a 6 24 17 f4 13 I 4 I 2 w I 4 5 2W 5 7Z1 7 4 1 I i I 5 INVENTOR.

P0554 7 5. flf/KIX Patented Oct. 7, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 7Claims.

. to be used on a cap for such containers and which is so constructed asto cleanly and surely cut the flow of fluid from the container when theclosure is moved to the closed position so as to avoid this diflicultyof the fluid running down the sides of the container.

While many of the prior devices served to effect this cutting offoperation, all are somewhat complicated in nature, employing a slideclosure member which is coupled by means of various types of linkages toa handle which is in turn pivotally secured to the cap body. Suchconstructions have numerous disadvantages, not the least of which is therelatively high cost of manufacture and the difliculty of keeping suchdevices clean and in a satisfactory operating condition. Most of thesedisadvantages arise from the employment of a pivotally mounted handleand the use of the necessary linkages re quired to couple the handle tothe sliding closure member.

It is accordingly an object of my invention to provide a movable closuredevice in which the handle member or thumb-piece is mounted for slidablemovement in contra-distinction to the pivotal movement employed on theprior devices.

It is also an object of my invention to provide a closure member of thecharacter set forth in the preceding paragraph in which the path ofmovement of the thumb-piece is such as to conform to the natural path ofmovement of the thumb of a person using the device.

It is a further object of my invention to provide a closure device ofthe character set forth in the preceding paragraphs in which the variousparts employed are detachably inter-related so that disassembling andcleaning operations may be readily performed.

It is a still further object of my invention to provide a device of thecharacter set forth in the preceding paragraphs in which the cap memberis die cast. molded, or similarly constructed to provide an integralsupporting handle and integrally formed means for guiding and securingthe movable closure member thereto.

It is also an object of my invention top'rovide a device of thecharacter set forth in the preceding paragraphs which employs a minimumnumber of moving parts, thus reducing the cost of manufacture andmaintenance.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will be apparent from astudy of the following specifications, read in connection with theaccompanying drawing, wherein:

Fig. l is an elevational view illustrating the appearance of one form ofcap and closure device of my invention as installed on a conventionalsyrup container;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the closure device illustrated in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal vertical section taken substantially along theline IIIlII of Fig. 2 and illustrating the cooperative relationshipbetween the parts when the device is in its closed position; and

Fig. 4 is a sectional view similar to Fig. 3 but illustrating thevarious positions of the parts when the closure member is retracted toopen the orifice in the cap.

Referring to the drawing, I have illustrated a conventional form of asyrup or honey container I as being fltted with a removable cap 2 whichcap is illustrated as incorporating the preferred embodiment of theclosure member of my invention.

As illustrated particularly in Fig. 3, the cap member 2 is accordinglyprovided on its underside with a cylindrical recess 3 which may bethreaded as indicated at 4 to provide an attachment with the upperthreaded end of the container I. If desired a gasket 5 may be interposedbetween the cap member 2 and the top edge of the container I to preventleakage around .the threads of the fluid contained within the ablvarcuate in shape and disposed in substantial alignment with thehandle 1. W thin the groove 8 is slidably received a flat blade-likeclosure member 9 which is preferably formed of a thin resilientmaterial, such as thin spring steel, spring brass or otherstrongresilent material.

The closure member 9 is adapted to be slid along the groove 8 from aforward or closed position su"-h as that il ustrted in F gs. 2 and 3, inwhich position it overlies an orifice I0 formed in the body of the cap 2and communicating with the interior of the container I, to a retractedor orifice opening position such as that illustrated in Fig. 4.

In order that the closure member 9 may be readily and easily movedbetween the aforementioned two positions, I provide a thumb-piece IIwhich includes a' plate portion |2 having a width substantially equal tothe width of the slot 8 and which is disposed in this slot in a positionoverlying the closure member 9. Formed integrally with the plate portionI2 I may provide a portion I! which is displaced upwardly relative tothe plane of the plate member l2 and which may be provided with aconcave depression |4 therein to provide a secure engagement with thethumb of a person lifting the container I by means of the handle I.

The closure member 9 and the overlying plate portion |2 of thethumb-piece may be prevented from moving transversely of the slot 8 inwhich they are disposed by providing flange means l5 and I6 which arepreferably formed integrally with the body portion 6 of the cap member 2and which overlie the closure member 9 and the thumb-piece preferablyextending across at least a part of the width of the groove 8.

In order that movement of the thumb-piece may be translated into acorresponding movement of the closure member 9, I provide the closuremember 9 with a rearwardly extending tongue portion H which is passedupwardly through a rectangular opening |8 formed in the plate portion l2of the thumb-piece II. The tongue-portion I! may be detachably engagedwith the thumb-piece H by providing thereon an upwardly extendingprojection l9 adapted to be received in a correspondingly shaped opening20 provided near the end of the tongue H.

The closure member 9 is preferably formed in such shape as to benormally concave downwards so that when the tongue portion I! is passedupwardly through the opening la the resilience of the material fromwhich the closure member 9 is formed will operate to continually urgethe tongue portion |1 down against the upper surface of the thumb-pieceI, thus insuring a continuous engagement between the projection l9 andthe opening 20 which is formed in the end of the tongue portion. It willbe observed that by thus interconnecting the closure member 9 and thethumb-piece slidable movement of the thumb-piece forwardly or rearwardlyalong the groove 8 will result in a corresponding opening and closingmovement of the closure member 9 relative to the orifice I0.

I prefer to provide means for normally urging the closure member 9toward its orifice closing position and for this pur ose I provide inthe body portion 6 of the cap member 2 a recess such as that indicatedat 2| in Figs. 3 and 4. This recess is preferably disposed directlybelow the thumb-piece so as to be covered thereby and is adapted toreceive a compression spring 22. A spring engaging member 23 formedintegrally with the thumb-piece H is projected inwardly into the recess2| in a position to engage one end of the spring 22 so that the naturaltendency of the spring 22 to extend and completely fill the recess 2|operates to urge the thumb-piece II and the closure member 9 towardtheir orifice closing positions.

The spring engaging means 23 may be conveniently formed at the time ofmanufacture of the thumb-piece II by employing a die stamping operationand merely turning downwardly into the desired position the materialwhich would normally be removed to provide the aforementioned openingHi. In a similar manner the upwardly directed projection l9 may beformed by shearing the metal of the plate portion l2 along three sidesof a rectangle and bending this material along the fourth side so as todisplace the material so bounded into an upwardly directed position.

It will be observed that this operation will provide a second opening inthe plate portion II which opening is identified by the referencecharacter 24. I refer to dispose the parts in such location that theopening 24 is normally disposed above the recess 2|, thus permitting theopening 24 to be employed as a means for introducing the spring 22 intothe recess 2| or removing the spring therefrom without removing thethumbpiece II from its normal position in the groove 8.

Attention is called to the fact that the device just described may bereadily and easily disassembled for cleaning purposes by merelyspringing the tongue "upwardly against the normal resilience of thematerial to disconnect the closure member 9 from the thumb-piece II andthen sliding the closure member 9 forwardly relative to the thumb-pieceII. This operation permits the closure member 9 to be completely removedso that it and the orifice with which it is associated may be cleaned.If a further disassembly of the device is desired, it is only necessaryto remove the spring 22 forwardly through the opening 24, this operationfreeing the thumb-piece II from the cap member 2, allowing both thespring and the thumb-piece to be separately removed for cleaning. Afterthese movable parts have been removed, the cap member 2, of course, mayalso be cleaned.

I prefer to form the cap member 2 by a die casting or molding operation,thus permitting the various openings, recesses, threads and the like tobe formed integrally therewith at extremely low cost.

From the foregoing it will be observed that I have provided a movableclosure device for use on caps to be detachably associated withcontainers which is characterized by a minimum number of moving partsand the complete elimination of all pivots, linkages, and similar meansfor interconnecting the thumb-piece or handle with theclosure member andthat the novel features of construction herein described permit theready and inexpensive manufacture and maintenance of the device of myinvention.

While I have shown and described the preferred embodiment of myinvention, I do not desire to be limited to any of the details ofconstruction shown or described herein, except as defined in theappended claims.

I claim:

1. The combination with a container cap hav-- ing means for attachmentto the open end of a container and means defining an orifice throughwhich the contents of said container may be discharged, of a movableclosure device including: a shallow groove formed in said cap memberextending transversely of said orifice; a fiat blade-like closure membermounted in said groove for slidable movement therealong to open andclose said orifice; flange means formed integrally with said cap memberand extending across at least a part of the width of said groove andover said closure member for preventing movement of said closure memberin a direction transverse to the length of said groove; a thumbpiecealso slidably mounted in said groove below said flange; and meanscoupling said closure member to said thumb-piece for movement therewith.

2. The combination with a container cap having means for attachment tothe open end of a container and means defining an orifice through whichthe contents of said container may be discharged, of a movable closuredevice including: a flat blade-like closure member; means on said capdefining anarcuate path of movement of said closure member forwardly andrearwardly across said orifice; a handle means on said cap memberextending rearwardly and downwardly from said cap in substantialalignment with said path of movement; and a thumbpiece secured to saidclosure member in such position as to be moved therewith along anarcuate path of movement substantially paralleling the length of saidhandle.

3. The combination with a container cap having means for attachment tothe open end of a container and means defining an orifice through whichthe contents of said container may be discharged, of a movable closuredevice including: a fiat blade-like closure member; means on said capdefining an arcuate path of movement of said closure member forwardlyand rearwardly across said orifice; a handle means on said cap memberextending rearwardly and downwardly from said cap in substantialalignment with said path of movement; a thumbpiece; means mounting saidthumb-piece on said cap for sliding movement along an arcuate path ofmovement substantially paralleling the length of said handle; and meanscoupling said thumbpiece to said closure member.

4. The combination with a container cap having means for attachment tothe open end of a container and means defining an orifice through whichthe contents of said container may be discharged, of a movable closuredevice including: a flat blade-like closure member; means on said capdefining an arcuate path of movement of said closure member forwardlyand rearwardly across said orifice; a handle means integral with saidcap member extending rearwardly .and downwardly from said capinsubstantial alignment with said path of movement; a thumbpiece; meansmounting said thumb-piece on said cap for sliding movement along anarcuate path of movement substantially paralleling the length of saidhandle; means coupling said thumbpieee to said closure member; andspring means interposed between said thumb-piece and said cap member fornormally urging said closure member to a position closing said orifice.

5. The combination with a container cap having means for attachment tothe open end of a container and means defining an orifice through whichthe contents of said container may be discharged, of a movable closuredevice including: a shallow groove formed in said cap member extendingtransversely of said orifice; a thumbpiece mounted in said groove forsliding movement therealong; flange means formed integrally with saidcap member and extending across at least a part of the width of saidgroove and over said thumb-piece for preventing movement thereof in adirection transverse to the length of said groove; a fiat blade-likeclosure member also mounted in said groove for sliding movementtherealong below said flange means; a

rearwardly extending tongue portion formed on said closure member; anopening in said thumbpiece, said closure member being disposed betweensaid thumb-piece and said cap member and having the tongue portionthereof passed through said opening so as to overlie said thumbpiece;and means detachably coupling said tongue portion to said thumb-piece,whereby releasing said detachable coupling allows said closure member tobe detached from said thumbpiece to permit cleaning of said device.

6. The combination with a container cap having means for attachment tothe open end of a container and means defining an orifice through whichthe contents of said container may be discharged, of a movable closuredevice including: a" shallow groove formed in said cap member extendingtransversely of said orifice; a thumbpiece mounted in said groove forsliding movement therealong; flange means formed integrally with saidcap member and extending across at least a part of the width of saidgroove and over said thumb-piece for preventing movement thereof in adirection transverse to the length of said groove; a fiat blade-likeclosure member formed of a relatively thin resilient material alsomounted in said groove for sliding movement therealong below said flangemeans; a rearwardly extending tongue portion formed on said closuremember; an opening in said thumbpiece, said closure member beingdisposed between said thumb-piece and said cap member and having thetongue portion thereof passed through said opening so as to overlie saidthumb-piece; an upwardly directed projection formed on said thumb-piece;and an opening in the end of said tongue portion for receiving saidprojection, whereby springing said tongue portion away from saidthumb-piece against the resilience thereof permits disassociation ofsaid closure member from said thumb-piece to permit disassembly andcleaning of said device.

7. The combination with a container cap having means for attachment tothe open end of a container and means defining an orifice through whichthe contents of said container may be discharged, of a movable closuredevice including: a shallow groove formed in said cap member extendingtransversely of said orifice; a fiat blade-like closure member mountedin said groove for slidable movement therealong to open and close saidorifice; flange meansformed integrally with said cap member andextending across at least a part of the width of said groove and oversaid closure member for preventing movement of said closure member in adirection transverse to the length of said groove; a thumbpiece alsoslidably mounted in said groove below said flange; means coupling saidclosure member tosaid thumb-piece for movement therewith; a recessformed in said cap member-below said thumb-piece; a spring disposed insaid recess; a spring engaging means formed on said thumb-pieceprojecting into said recess and engaging one end of said spring; and anopening through said thumb-piece in a position to normally overlie saidrecess and of a size sufilcient to pass said spring, whereby said springmay be inserted into or removed from said recess without removing saidthumb-piece from said groove.

- ROBERT E. DE KAY.

